The aim of this speaking activity is for the students to learn bigger chunks of language to be able to talk about themselves and/or other people. The activity is based around 5 verbs: be, have, work, go, and like. It is something I came up with for my 1-1 classes with beginner / elementary adult students in order to get to know them better.
My day in four skills: #4skills1day
The idea for this post came from Joanna’s wonderful blog and I’ve been meaning to write it for a couple of weeks now. Once I sat down to it and looked at these first couple of days after coming to Berlin from my Christmas break in Warsaw, I realized that each day I’ve been juggling as many languages as skills. Yesterday was no exception.
Learning new skills
I’ve recently realized it’s been a while since the last time I tried to learn something completely new. Something that involved rules, a sequence to follow, and some logical thinking. It hit me when my dad tried to teach me how to play Hearts. Going through this painful experience made me think of teaching grammar.
New Year’s Eve traditions activity
The aim of this brief activity is to talk about different New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world. It is a great idea for the first class after the holiday break and is suitable for all ages and levels. It is based on this Buzzfeed article.
Changes, challenges, and lessons learned: 2015 in review
I feel my first year of blogging would be incomplete without a little “as this year draws to a close” post. Here it goes, my 2015 in review. Quite a few changes, many challenges, and some lessons learned.
Continue Reading …
Best and worst Christmas gifts speaking activity
The aim of this activity is to talk about best and worst ideas for Christmas gifts. It is a good fit for all ages and levels. It makes students share their personal experience, compare opinions, and usually makes for a fun class. It is a great idea for the last lesson before the Christmas break. Continue Reading …
Video-based Christmas activities
The last class before the Christmas break might be a challenge as even adult students expect it to be light and holiday oriented. This short video issued by WestJet airlines in 2013 has inspired my Christmas conversation classes with more advanced students. I then came up with different activity ideas for all levels, focusing on speaking and listening.
Office Christmas parties lesson plan
The aim of this lesson is talking and writing about the dos and don’ts of office Christmas parties. It is a great opportunity to revise and practice different ways of giving advice. The lesson is suitable for adult students, levels pre-intermediate and above. The lesson is based on the article published in The Telegraph.
Phrasal verbs about food: writing activity
This writing activity helps students learn and practice different phrasal verbs about food. It is a perfect fit for classes about nutrition, diets, health, and fitness. It might be used with groups and individual students, levels intermediate and higher.
6 steps to teaching phrasal verbs
My students often ask me how to learn phrasal verbs and confess they genuinely hate these little monsters. At first I wasn’t sure what kind of advice I could offer. Still, I knew that suggesting learning by heart would inevitably put my learners off. I have finally come up with 6 steps that can help students learn phrasal verbs more effectively. I would like to share them with other English teachers and learners.
